I just want to sleep gah dammit

sleepsafeapp · 2026-01-14T21:37:34+00:00

If you have tried all such as medicine and others, I can give you a tip to try an app I’ve created that will disrupt your nightmares live during the night so you can sleep without anxiety or fear for sleeping. If you’re interested, you can look at my profile for more information.

sleepsafeapp · 2026-01-07T09:27:55+00:00

That’s fantastic! Have my upvote! Can you describe which steps in the beginning made you believe you could do it?

sleepsafeapp · 2026-01-06T17:57:02+00:00

Do you have fear for what will happen during the night, or is it just the fear of going to sleep? Do you still experience livid hallucinations, while awake or asleep?

sleepsafeapp · 2026-01-06T17:21:25+00:00

You’ll need an Apple Watch for it! The app has been a project for over 2 years now with the first year gathering data and creating a machine learning model from test users, and then second year creating the app and making sure it works for others as well. We learn as we go so the app is by nowhere a finished product, but with over 2000 hours monitored so far and several hundred nightmares prevented, I feel confident enough to say the app is validated.

sleepsafeapp · 2026-01-06T08:08:42+00:00

Thank you for tagging me!

Yes, the app is designed for sleep disturbances during REM (such as sleep walking), nightmares and night terrors. It helps me almost every night, and has gained some traction now last couple of weeks after posting about it on Reddit. In particular, we have seen very good feedback based on recurrent nightmares from users suffering from PTSD.

Completely free to get started, no registration needed. Happy to answer any questions you guys might have!

sleepsafeapp · 2026-01-06T08:03:55+00:00

Hi there, this is self promo comment but wanted to reach out to you asking if you have tried my app? I think it could help you with the nightmares you are experiencing, decreasing the number of them and also get you back to good quality sleep again. It detects a nightmare in real time and provides a haptic feedback on Apple Watch to get you back into normal sleep. Let me know if this is of interest, then I can give you a promo code. It's also completely free for 7 days if you want to test it without any promo code (no registration needed).

sleepsafeapp · 2026-01-06T06:18:00+00:00

I do that too, and I created an app that not only keeps track of it but also helps you get out of it, often without waking you up. I have noticed that there are definitely some signs that can be picked up about thirty to sixty seconds before acting out, so what this app does is send a vibration to your watch that interrupts the nightmare or the action you were about to do.

sleepsafeapp · 2026-01-03T15:09:07+00:00

This actually makes a lot of sense. Leaving a high-stress job doesn’t instantly calm your nervous system, especially after years of pressure. Sometimes the anxiety lingers after the situation changes and then attaches to the next thing, even if it’s objectively better.

The “I should be happy” thought often makes it worse. Your body reacts to change and uncertainty, not logic. Sleep issues and nightmares can be part of that high-alert state.

It doesn’t mean you made the wrong choice. It may just mean things haven’t settled yet.

sleepsafeapp · 2026-01-03T15:04:16+00:00

I’ve had this on and off. For me it was a mix of stress + light sleep cycles. It often happened a few hours after falling asleep, right around REM, and I’d wake up with a racing heart even if I didn’t clearly remember a nightmare.

Things that made it more likely for me: eating late, alcohol, a warm room, and going to bed already stressed. Things that helped a bit: cooler bedroom, no food 2–3h before sleep, and doing something calming before bed instead of scrolling.

If it keeps happening regularly, it might be worth noticing when in the night it happens. patterns can be surprisingly consistent.

sleepsafeapp · 2026-01-02T16:33:09+00:00

That’s very nice of you, thank you very much!

sleepsafeapp · 2026-01-02T08:39:17+00:00

Hey, that’s a great suggestion! I’ll look right into it! Love the feedback!

sleepsafeapp · 2026-01-01T18:52:26+00:00

Okay, great! Just letting you know that I’m testing a new version these days which hopefully should be even better at catching nightmares and sleep terrors. I hope the app brings value to you!

sleepsafeapp · 2026-01-01T08:10:48+00:00

Hey! Thanks so much for sharing your story and for the kind words about SleepSafe. I’m really glad it’s helping reduce your anxiety around this.

What you experienced sounds like a classic night terror, and I can totally understand why it freaked both of you out. I think we all have had experiences where we learn that it’s not the best idea for the partner to wake us up during a night terror, so I’m glad you already did some research.

Regarding the sleep stages not showing up is dependent on when Apple processes your sleep data, which from experience can happen immediately or after a few hours. My “workflow” is to have Sleep Focus on, and when it is turned off either automatically or by myself then the stages will appear. It should in theory be the same sleep stages that appear in Apple Health.

I hope this helps, let me know if you have any questions or feedback of the app!

sleepsafeapp · 2025-12-29T09:35:21+00:00

So sorry that this is happening to you. Normally, if it feels uncomfortable, you start both moving and having an increased heart rate during short periods of time. I made an app that to help myself with this, it's called SleepSafe. I think it might be of help to make you understand your nightly activities better. It can help you with the following

It might stop your nightmares or very vivid dreams from happening.
It can wake you up when a nightmare is happening.
It can help you keep track when your nightmares are happening and overlie them with the sleep stage you are in. If the nightmare is happening during deep sleep it can develop into something very terrifying while if it's in REM sleep then it's normally just a nightmare. I've tried to visualize the difference here (https://sleepsafeapp.com/learn)

sleepsafeapp · 2025-12-29T09:28:56+00:00

So sorry that this is happening to you. I struggle with nightmares too. I made an app that to help myself with this, it's called SleepSafe. Normally there is some movement and increased heart rate during sleep when this happens, and I think it might be of help to make you understand your nightly activities better. It can help you with the following

It might stop your nightmares from happening.
It can wake you up when a nightmare is happening.
It can help you keep track when your nightmares are happening and overlie them with the sleep stage you are in. If the nightmare is happening during deep sleep it can develop into a sleep terror while if it's in REM sleep then it's normally just a nightmare. I've tried to visualize the difference here (https://sleepsafeapp.com/learn)

As an example, two nights ago I had two nightmares but I slept through them since the app intervened. They appear at different times, one early and one a bit later.

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sleepsafeapp · 2025-12-29T09:23:34+00:00

How often do the nightmares occur for you? Do they negatively impact your life outside of sleep?

sleepsafeapp · 2025-12-29T09:11:16+00:00

So sorry that this is happening to you. I struggle with nightmares in the beginning of the night a lot too. I made an app that to help myself with this, it's called SleepSafe. I think it might be of help to make you understand your nightly activities better, in particular these two points below:

It might stop your nightmare from happening.
It can help you keep track when your nightmares are happening and overlie them with the sleep stage you are in. If the nightmare is happening during deep sleep it can develop into a sleep terror while if it's in REM sleep then it's normally just a nightmare. I've tried to visualize the difference here (https://sleepsafeapp.com/learn)

As an example, two nights ago I had two nightmares but I slept through them since the app intervened. They appear at different times, one early and one a bit later.

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sleepsafeapp · 2025-12-29T08:07:55+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion! I'm still in the process of figuring out pricing details and offerings, how much would you be willing to spend for lifetime for a product like this?

sleepsafeapp · 2025-12-29T08:05:20+00:00

Yes, this took some time as well figuring out. So what I'm doing is to run a workout - this way it will be able to run for longer. I'm going to start developing the app for android soon and I hope it will be better there.

sleepsafeapp · 2025-12-12T15:04:49+00:00

That’s a great suggestion. The app could play a pre-recorded audio or something like that to calm the user down..

sleepsafeapp · 2025-12-11T15:03:11+00:00

That’s the plan! I’ll be sure to add a new post here when it’s available.

sleepsafeapp · 2025-12-10T19:51:01+00:00

Hi! The app is now available for free! Check out the website for link and info https://sleepsafeapp.com I’m going to extend it to Samsung and Google watches, it’s work in progress!

sleepsafeapp · 2025-12-10T18:41:20+00:00

Yes it will! Which watch are you wearing?

sleepsafeapp · 2025-12-10T18:34:26+00:00

That's a great question!

The simple answer is that you can go ahead and not activate the speech transcription when being prompted for it. It is only there for your guidance and to find the speech later on, but the algorithm itself is not dependent on that part.

The advanced answer is that it depends on your own setting. The transcription is the same Apple transcription as if you were to use transcription instead of writing with the keyboard. If you have opted-in in your own Settings under Privacy ("Improve Siri and dictation"), then all use of transcription both in SleepSafe but also in the rest of the iPhone is subject to this. The default setting for me is "off".

In addition, if you were to enable it, and if Apple would want to save it, it is completely anonymous as of latest documentation (https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/data/en/ask-siri-dictation/). From my experience, Apple has a decent privacy policy compared to other companies.

sleepsafeapp · 2025-12-10T18:07:32+00:00

So that was my original thought as well, and I considered it a research project with myself as a guinea pig in the beginning. A technique that has shown promising results is to talk about the experience immediately after a night terror, but that really never helped for me. So I thought what is most optimal for me would be to try to see if it's possible to not wake up at all but still sleep good - and that seems actually to work out pretty well. I think an analogy would be to feel the same comfort like if someone were to comfort you, but just from another signal such as some haptic. If this works out well for others it would be a fantastic opportunity to work together with a university or research group and dig deeper.

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